>> pelley: tonight, the debate breathes new life into the romney campaign. >> and let's get out there and win. >> pelley: as the president's comeback comes a day too late. >> we didn't know that big bird was driving the federal deficit. >> pelley: campaign 2012 reports from jan crawford, nancy cordes, and wyatt andrews. seth doane on the deadly meningitis outbreak spreading to more states. holly williams is on the syrian border as tensions mount with neighboring turkey. and ben tracey with seniors who believe neither food nor life should be wasted. >> we've still got a lot of good years in us and we can help a lot of people and that's the main thing we're doing. captioning sponsored by cbs captioning sponsored by cb this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. 3ith just 33 days to go, the presidential election is suddenly looking a whole lot different than it did 24 hours

ago. republican challenger mitt had ey did what he had to do in the first debate to turn his campaign around. have a look at our poll of cocommitted voters. voters who told us before the debate they had not made up their minds or could still change them. after watching the debate, 46% said governor romney won. less than half that thereby, 2%, said president obama won. 32% called it a tie. and look at this-- before the debate, only 30% of uncommitted voters said governor romney cares about their needs and problems. ebter the debate, that number more than doubled to 63%. on that same question, mr. obama's number went up as well, from 53% to 69. that was small consolation, though for a president whose debate performance has shaken up his campaign. we have reports tonight from our campaign 2012 team, and first, we'll go to nancy cordes, who is whvering the president tonight. nancy.

>> reporter: scott, even desccrats are describing the president's performance as lack luster, and listless, and the campaign acknowledges it is ining to have to reexamine its debate strategy. mpt on the campaign trail today, the president was in cleanup mode, trying to turn the tables on a triumphant mitt romney. >> when i got on to the stage, i tet this very spirited fellow who claimed to be mitt romney. but it couldn't have been mitt romney because the real mitt romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. >> reporter: supporters like darrion wilson wondered where that president obama was last bamat. >> i was wanting him to have >> more enthusiasm in his enters and hit back a little more. i felt like romney was lying right and left and i'm, "come on, call him on that." >> reporter: campaign officials ancede in an attempt to appear

above the fray mr. obama missed easy opening. he spoke slowly, sometimes haltingly in a roundabout way. >> i want to get to it, but all i want to do is very quickly. >> let's get back to medicare. >> reporter: it's not that the president didn't go on offense. >> is the reason that governor romney is keeping all these plans to replace secret because they're too good? >> reporter: but debate observers noted a difference in body language. la. obama looked down when his opponent spoke and sometimes appeared angry or peevish. emney kept his eyes glued on the president, waiting to jump in. today, mr. obama delivered some of the comebacks he missed last night. >> he said he would eliminate elnding for public television. orlaughter ) ( booing ) that was his answer. i mean, thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on big nird.

it's about time. te didn't know that big bird was driving the federal deficit. >> reporter: so the question now s does the campaign send the president back to debate camp? earlier this week, he described it as a drag, and, scott, one t,urce close to the white house tells us the president appeared rritated during debate prep in rivada, a common affliction for presidents who aren't used to being challenged face to face. >> pelley: we're going to switch now to jan crawford who is covering the renewed romney compaign tonight, jan. o reporter: scott, romney had gotten off his message the past few weeks and conservatives criticized him for not being tough enough on the president. last night he silenced those critics. lency we're here in virginia. this may be his biggest rally vt. this campaign is re-energized. let's get out there and win. thank you! >> reporter: eager to capitalize on the debate, his campaign

arranged for romney to make a urprise appearance this morning before the colorado conservative political action conference where he talked up his debate performance. >> last night i thought was a great opportunity for the american people to see two very different visions for the country. and i think it was-- it was helpful to be able to describe those visions. i saw the president's vision as trickle-down government. and i don't think that's what america believes in. >> reporter: romney used the trickle-down government phrase for the first time in the moate, saying the president melieved in more government, big spending, and higher taxes falling his policies a failure. >> under the president's policies, middle-income icericans have been buried. they're-- they're just being crushed. middle-income americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. this is a-- this is a tax in and of itself. i'll call it the economy tax. it's been crushing. >> reporter: campaign aides say he will continue to hit obama hard on the economy and jobs. and will offer more specifics which they've been promising for some time.

he is also ramping up spending on television after being outspent by the president more than two to one in swing states and this morning released a new ad reinforcing his message in the debate. >> who will raise taxes on the middle class? according to an independent, nonpartisan study, barack obama and the liberals will raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000. >> reporter: now, after the debate, his key advisers, eymney's key advisers, said they thre surprised the president didn't put up more of a fight. one told me they were ready for some of these attacks on bain capital. romney's comment about the 47% of americans who don't pay federal income taxes. raose have featured prominently in the president's attack ads. last night, scott, he didn't mention either one. >> pelley: jan, thank you. ace president joe biden also talked about taxes today, and here's what he had to say at a llmpaign stop in iowa. >> on top of the trillion dollars of spending we've skready cut, we're going to ask, yes, we're going to ask the wealthy to pay more.

my heart breaks. come on man. yo ( applause ) you know the phrase you always use? obama and biden want to raise taxes by $8 trillion. guess what? yes, we do, in one regard. we want to let that trillion- dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy. ( applause ) dhat's not a tax raise. that's called fairness where i come from. t> pelley: the vice president will debate his republican challenger, paul ryan, next thursday, and cbs news will bring it to you live beginning at 9:00 eastern time. the other big story we're ollowing tonight is the deadly outbreak of meningitis. it has now spread to six states. 35 cases have been reported, five people have died. the suspected source is tainted vials of steroids that were oipped to 23 states.

seth doane is in tennessee, the state with the most cases. >> honest to goodness, as time went on, i became more and more frightened. >> reporter: on monday, sue manner learned she might have ten infected by the fungus in the contaminated steroids given for back pain. what symptoms have you been told to look out for. >> headache, neck pain, uhm, vomiting, dizziness, a lot of flu-like symptoms. >> reporter: those could be symptoms-- >> could be anything. mareporter: manner was one of more than 700 patients who received injections at clinics ffiliated with st. thomas hospital in nashville. >> i don't want this thing in my body. i feel like i want to plunger. i want to pull it out, get out of my body. >> yeah, they were all worried and she rightfully so. tf've told them all that this is very serious. >> reporter: dr. robert latham has examined 19 people who received injections. he saw three new meningitis cases today.

the nashville clinics received 2,000 potentially contaminated vials from the massachusetts company that makes the drug, new england compounding center. the company has received safety arnings from the f.d.a. in the past, one time for mislabeling a drug. he c.d.c. is investigating how the drug became contaminated. by injecting the tainted steroid into the lower back, the fungus can travel directly through the spinal fluid to the brain. it normally takes between one and four weeks for meningitis symptoms to appear. ertehe hospital has alerted more than 700 who have received this injection. do you expect to see a lot more coming through these doors? >> i can't tell you yet at this point whether we're at the beginning, the middle, or the end. i think we're probably in the middle. i hope we're at the end, but there's no guarantee of that. >> reporter: sue manner, the patient we spoke with, says she does not blame the hospital where he received that injection. today we learned more than

17,000 doses have been recalled, but, scott, no word as to how many of those have been administered. >> pelley: seth, thank you. dr. jon lapook is our medical correspondent. john, seth just said the c.d.c. is investigating how the vials were contaminated. how might they have been wentaminated? haat are the possibilities? >> reporter: scott, that medication is supposed to be prepared in a sterile environment but if there's a breakdown in the system there could be contamination in the fungus. it's common in soil, decomposing leaves and even floating in the air. >> pelley: if the fungus is everywhere, as you describe it, why is it so dangerous in this case? >> reporter: in somebody with a normal immune system the lungs filter it out. ouen you inject it directly into the spine, that's like a straight highway to the brain. >> pelley: jon, thank you very ver. it has been more than three weeks since that deadly terrorist attack on the u.s. s.nsulate in benghazi, libya. today, the libyan government finally allowed a team of f.b.i. agents to see the crime scene. four americans were killed in

that attack, of course, including ambassador chris stephens. the agents, with a u.s. military escort, spent 12 hours at the consulate, though much of the evidence has already been compromised there. the violence in syria's civil war is spilling over its borders. for a second day, turkey fired artillery shells into syria. it was in retaliation for a syrian mortar shell that slammed into a house on the turkish side yesterday. five turkish civilians were killed, including three children. 10 people were wounded. today, turkey's parliament authorized military operations in syria. with the latest on this, we have holly williams, who is in turkey, on the border with syria. holly, the turkish prime minister said today he doesn't want war with syria, so why did turkey fire into syria again? >> reporter: well, the turkish prime minister says he doesn't want a war.

>> the turkish public definitely doesn't want a war. the problem is turkish government feels frustrated by its unable to control what's happening in syria and to stop the chaos spilling across its borders. there are more than 100,000 h mian refugees here in turkey. back in june, a turkish military plane was shot down by syria, and i think it's for all of i ose reasons that today the harkish parliament voted to authorize the use of force oainst syria if necessary. essentially, turkey is sending a strong warning to syria, saying we don't want to fight you, but we will if we feel that you give us no other choice. >> pelley: so how dangerous is the situation on the border now? >> reporter: well the u.s. state department said today so far turkey's response had been proportionate and appropriate. art the fear is this could escalate into a military conflict between turkey and andia. and that would be massively destabilizing for the entire middle eastern region. it would almost certainly draw in other neighboring countries c the conflict. it could even draw in the u.s.

because turkey is a nato ally and that scenario in this part of the world is very worrying. >> pelley: holly, thank you. y me marines are finally home nearly seven decades after being lost in war. in texas, the record drought has started a water war. and mission to mars, the rover's first big test when the cbs evening news continues. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you turn an entrepreneur's dream... ♪ into a scooter that talks to the cloud? ♪ or make 70,000 trades a second... ♪

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[ female announcer ] ...without swanson. the broth cooks trust most when making soup. mmmm! [ female announcer ] the secret is swanson. >> pelley: the amount of the itedinental united states in hasught has fallen slightly over .he past week. but the record dry conditions are still intense in the heartland, and in texas, two- thirds of the state is in drought. anna werner says that means tough choice where's water is scarce. >> we're just basically a barren wasteland here because we didn't hve water. >> reporter: ron's family has fami growing rice on their texas land since 1910, but this is their worst year ever. is you can drive out across this erairie here and see nothing green for miles in some cases, never, ever been that way. >> reporter: gertson and other erntral gulf coast rice farmers get much of their water supply from lake travis, a reservoir ma managed by the lower colorado

river authority. tst year, the drought caused lake levels to drop by more than half, so this year, for the first time, state officials cut ter most farmers' water supply. just 5% of the area's normal male crop will be harvested this dar. > the drought just highlighted a condition that was already coming to be. >> reporter: which was? >> not enough water to go around for everybody to continue doing things in the way that they're used to. >> reporter: that's because lake travis also supplies drinking water for cities, including austin, and supports recreation around the lake, like janet kaler's marina. she points out last year, in the middle of the severe drought, early 60% of the water drained wom the lake system, went to the farmers. >> they want things to remain as they always were. that's not the way the world works. >> reporter: her marina is losing business. waterfront homes now sit hundreds of feet away from

water. >> there's no question that e ise is a battle going on. look around you at the devastation of these businesses and the cost. it's immediate and now. >> a drought kind of makes you aware of what you don't have. >> reporter: becky motal heads the lower colorado river authority. the agency plans to build new reservoirs to meet demand from a population that cowl double by 2060, but that will take years. >> as the urban areas grow ask they have more of a demand for water, that water's got to come from somewhere. >> reporter: ron gertsen hopes that water will last long enough for his grandson to become a sixth generation rice farmer. ov i would love for him to have the choice. i can't say that that will be available to him. >> reporter: ultimately, he says, he may have to fight for that choice, not on a farm field but in a courtroom. anna werner, cbs news, dallas. ev pelley: seven marines were

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>> pelley: the price of gasoline ts never been this high at this time of year. the national average tonight is $3.78 a gallon, and that is $.38 agher than a year ago. in california, it's $4.32 a gallon, after going up $.09 overnight. gasoline supplies are tight because of disruption at two refineries that supply california. nasa's newest mars rover is ready for its first big geology gyssion. curiosity has driven more than 400 yards since landing on the red planet in august. today, nasa said the plan is to rve the rover scoop up some soil some time in the next few weeks, and analyze it for signs that mars was once able to support life. we also got a rare peek today at a dying star courtesy of a nasa telescope. have a look. it's called a helix nebula, 650 lightyears from the earth.

you're seeing its last gasp as it burns out. nasa says the same thing will happen to our sun in about 5 billion years. the fight against hunger in ing fornia is getting a lift p om a group of seniors. we'll have their story next. w>c [ male announcer ] your mouth is cleanest after the dentist.

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wrap. what they are doing is feeding the hungry. taking in and sorting millions of pounds of excess food from grocery stores that passed a cell by date but safe to eat

instead sending it off to local food banks. >> there's a growing need especially with the downturn in the economy more and more people are seeking assistance. >> reporter: gary mcdonald is the ceo of what's known as senior gleaners. last year, they fed nearly 100,000 people with $10 million worth of food. >> america wastes 96 billion pounds of food each year a lot of that is salvageable. if we could salvage the food that's being wasted today we could feed everyone in america. >> reporter: they got going 36 years ago by heading out in fields and backyards collecting extra produce. tony lampa had more tomatoes than he could ever eat hanging in his backyard. >> what led you to make the call and come out and grab this stuff? >> what else am i going to do with it? why not give it to someone who will share it. >> reporter: a crew of four pick the vines clean but many of of these volunteers need

help themselves. they are on fixed incomes so they can take food from the warehouse pantry twice a week. >> we are not just standing in line in a food bank and accepting somebody else's work. we come here and we work and have something to take home. >> reporter: knowing there are so many people struggling is what drives shirley to stay on her forklift. >> we still got a lot of good years in us and we can help a lot of people. that's the main thing. >> reporter: golden years that have become a golden opportunity to give back. ben tracy, cbs news, sacramento. >> and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. cook in for dana king. a new leader, and what coule

a new direction for the catc church good evening. i'm allen martin. >> i'm elizabeth cook in for dane dawn. a new leader in what could be a new direction for the catholic church in san francisco. >> in a ceremony of ancient church ritual, salvatore cordileone was installed as the archbishop of san francisco. mark sayre on the day of ceremony and protest. mark. >> reporter: well, allen, hundreds of people attended this afternoon's installation ceremony including dignitaries from the catholic church but it is a ceremony that was also met by protestors. archbishop salvatore cordileone walked inside the front doors of st. mary's cathedral at the beginning of the installation ... >> reporter: but just a few hundred feet away protestors opposed him because of his same-sex marriage ban. >> he is about the